US: Democratic nominee wants to bring US troops home and get more allies into coalition, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, New York.
Democratic candidate John Kerry said yesterday that if elected US president he planned to use private negotiations to persuade allies to assist in reconstructing Iraq, and he also predicted that a Kerry administration could get NATO involved in Iraq.
Speaking on CBS Face The Nation Mr Kerry said a new president could make a "fresh start" with world leaders who opposed the war, and that he did not envision sending more US troops there.
"If we demonstrate an America that has a foreign policy that is smarter, more engaged and more respectful of the world, we're going to bring people to our side," he said.
"We're not only not going to put additional troops there, that's the way to bring our troops home."
Mr Kerry was derided by Republicans some months ago for saying he had the private support of unnamed world leaders, but is now clearly determined to use the prospect of foreign support to his advantage.
He said he had a plan to approach other world leaders, but "I'm not negotiating it publicly."
In his first explanation of foreign policy since his nomination as Democratic candidate in Boston on Thursday, Mr Kerry declined to specify a timetable for withdrawing the 140,000 US troops in Iraq.
But he said he would consider his policy unsuccessful "if I hadn't brought significant numbers of troops back within the first term."
Separately vice-presidential nominee John Edwards said a new administration could "bring other countries like France and Germany and Russia to the reconstruction effort, so that the Iraq economy can get off the ground and we can get some debt forgiveness."
In recent months Spain and the Philippines have withdrawn from the US-led coalition in Iraq and NATO has pledged only technical and training support.
Several observers have predicted that European allies will not take any new initiative on Iraq between now and November so as not to enhance US President George Bush's prospects of re-election. A recent Economist poll showed Mr's Bush's standing in Europe to be at an all-time low.
Mr Kerry's remarks yesterday come as a new poll showing that he scores five points over Mr Bush as someone who can be trusted to cope with an international crisis, a reversal of previous polls.
The Newsweek poll showed that Mr Kerry has had a modest bounce from last week's Democratic convention. He now enjoys a seven-point lead over Mr Bush - 49 per cent to 42 per cent - with independent Ralph Nader at 3 per cent.
Three weeks ago Mr Kerry had a three-point lead. Mr Bush's approval rating meanwhile has slipped from 48 to 45 per cent.
Some 44 per cent of those polled predicted that Kerry-Edwards would win the election on November 2nd, compared to 43 per cent for Mr Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Mr Bush's domestic support as a leader in the war on terror and in Iraq is also slipping.
A 15-point lead enjoyed by Mr Bush three weeks ago as the person most trusted to handle the situation in Iraq has evaporated - the two are now level - and a 21- point lead on handling homeland security has been reduced to five points.
To counter the slippage in his ratings, Mr Bush has launched a month-long drive to redefine his opponent Kerry as an undistinguished Senator with a liberal record.
The two rivals slugged it out in Pennsylvania and Ohio on Saturday, at one point their bus cavalcades passing within 30 miles of each other near Pittsburgh.
The election race has become so intense that both campaigns plan to continue at full throttle during the two-week Olympic Games starting on August 13th, when it had been assumed they would take a mid-summer rest.
The Bush-Cheney campaign could not afford to take a break, said Matthew Dowd, a senior Bush adviser, after a Newsweek poll showed Mr Kerry enjoying a bounce after the Democratic National Convention in Boston last week.
Republicans are hoping that Mr Bush will regain the initiative by spending some $30 million on television advertising to counter Mr Kerry's growing popularity before the Republican national Convention in New York.
Advisers to Mr Bush said that the aim would be to undermine Mr Kerry's standing as a war hero with ridicule and derision over his Senate voting record.
"During the next month Mr Bush plans to lay out his agenda for the next four years," said Bush political adviser, Mr Karl Rove.
"We need, as we go into the convention, to put more of an emphasis on our agenda.
"But we still need to explain the war on terror and we need to offer a contrast with Senator Kerry," he said.
Mr Bush has stepped up his personal attacks on Mr Kerry, accusing him of voting against body armour and other benefits for US troops in Iraq - a reference to Mr Kerry's vote against an $87 billion appropriations bill in protest at tax breaks for the rich.
"And then he said: 'The whole thing is a complicated matter'. There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat."
Referring to Mr Kerry's pledge to revoke tax breaks for the rich, Mr Bush remarked: "He said he's only going to raise the tax on the so-called rich.
"But you know how the rich is, they've got accountants. That means you pay. That means your small business pays. It means the farmers and ranchers pay."
Mr Kerry - who refused on CBS yesterday to call Mr Bush a liar - has nevertheless implied this in his stump speeches.
In Greensburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday he pledged to be like other noted presidents who "stood up and told the truth to the American people".
Mr Kerry claimed that consultants keep telling Republicans "just talk in this tiny, little, itsy- bitsy sound bite. Be negative, go out there and attack.
"Yesterday, the president said to Americans that we were turning the corner, referring to the economy," he told a rally.
"Well, let me ask you, if you're one of those 44 million Americans that don't have health insurance, are you turning the corner? If you're one of those people who has a job, that's been forced overseas, are we turning the corner for those folks?"